A House bill on NOAA workplace safety is built on data from Alaska — where a third of fisheries observers report harassment or assault

A House subcommittee heard testimony Wednesday on a bill to strengthen sexual harassment and assault protections at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — legislation grounded heavily in research from the North Pacific Observer Program, the Alaska-based system that puts federal monitors on commercial fishing vessels in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, and Gulf of Alaska.

The bill, H.R. 2406, was introduced by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, after a fisheries biologist came to her office reporting that she had been sexually harassed while conducting research on a NOAA ship. After reporting the harassment, the biologist was "effectively grounded" and advised against going to sea for her own safety, Bonamici told the House Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.

The bill would expand NOAA's sexual harassment prevention and response policy to cover contractor employees and fisheries observers — categories the current policy does not reach. It would also create an anonymous reporting structure and expand enforcement authority to cover intimidation of, and interference with, observers.

Those provisions land directly on Alaska. The North Pacific Observer Program is administered out of NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region and deploys roughly 400 observers a year, many staging from Kodiak, Dutch Harbor, and other Alaska ports. A multi-year study of the program found nearly one third of those 400 observers experience harassment or assault annually, Bonamici said. Of those, only 45 percent disclosed it. Female observers were at least twice as likely to be targeted as their male colleagues.

Dr. Timothy Petty, NOAA's assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere, testified that the agency supports the bill and has already implemented many of its provisions. NOAA issued an updated sexual harassment prevention and response policy in 2025 and has installed cameras in berthing and passenger areas across the fleet.

The subcommittee also heard testimony Wednesday on three other bills, including Rep. Nick Begich's measure on northern sea otter pelt commerce.